cool things you can do with honey

These fun facts are brought to you in partnership with our mates at The Body Shop.

Bathe in it Drizzle a little honey into your next bath. Trust us on this one. Not only will it help treat and prevent acne (owing to honey’s powerhouse antibacterial properties), it’ll also soothe and moisturise your skin. People may want to lick you afterwards, but that’s the price you’ve got to pay for feeling and smelling so great.

If you’re keen to drench your body with honey, you may like to check out The Body Shop’s Almond Milk & Honey Body Care Range, featuring a smorgasbord of scrummy-smelling goods, ideal for sensitive skin.

Make cough syrup Of course, you could grab a bottle of cough syrup from the pharmacist – or, you could whip up some good old-fashioned home-brewed stuff to soothe your aching throat. America’s National Honey Board suggests boiling up honey with lemon and ginger, which would taste much nicer that the store-bought stuff, we reckon.

Soothe a burn Studies have found that mild burns heal faster when you dab a bit of honey on them – all because of honey’s antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. So if you end up burning your fingers when making your next batch of toast, just make sure you’ve got enough honey to spread on yourself, too.

Cure your hangover Look, everyone’s got their go-to remedy for chasing away a morning-after headache and/or vomiting session, but did you know that honey is super-efficient at breaking down the alcohol in your system? So much so that consuming a bit of honey before drinking may even prevent a hangover. Handy, that.

Make your hair shiny Do you know what a humectant is? Neither did we, until we looked it up. Turns out that it’s a substance that retains moisture. Honey is one such substance – which is why smothering your hair with it is an age-old trick for making your follicles extra-shiny. Just don’t forget to wash it out.

Preserve fruit If you’ve got a tree in your backyard that’s dropping more delicious fruit than you can possibly gobble down, then you might like to douse said fruit with honey and turn it into jam. Honey’s a natural preservative, as it happens, so it’s rather ideal for this purpose. Plus, it’ll make your jams taste super-frigging delicious.

Whip up marshmallows Yep, you can use a dollop of bee’s vomit to make your very own marshmallows – and you won’t even need to use any sugar, because you’ll already have nature’s own sweetener in the mix, i.e. honey. Here’s to snacks that look like tiny clouds.